Prof Jackie Cassell

Metrics for the trade offs between infection impacts and care/daily life impacts is so important. Yes infections have unpredictable, non-linear trajectory. But we know *a lot* about what is good in #socialcare. Time to bring it into #pandemic planning and practice

By me in @ConversationUK: 'Scabies outbreak in UK and Europe – what you need to know' (lnkd.in/ePkesuNc). Amidst rising cases & harmful myths, I have written this for a public audience & answer: * What is scabies & how do people catch it? * Are scabies cases rising, & if so why? * Who is most at risk of catching scabies? * Is scabies caused by poor personal hygiene? * What are the symptoms? * How contagious is scabies & how long can mites survive off the body? * Why does scabies treatment sometimes fail or seem not to work? * Why was an oral medication recently introduced? * Is scabies becoming resistant to medicated cream? * What are the emotional & mental health effects of scabies on patients and families? * Why do shame and embarrassment make scabies harder to control? * What should people do if they think they have scabies? Based on my ongoing @NIHRARCs supported #PublicHealth research at @ARC_KSS + @BSMSMedSchool (a collaboration between @SussexUni, @uniofbrighton, & @UHSussex).

Interview with me in @MetroUK on the need to @ControlScabies in schools, care homes, & other crowded institutions. Online today, in print edition later this week. Our @BSMSMedSchool @ARC_KSS research enabled UK licensing of oral #ivermectin treatments, and I continue to support teams managing outbreaks nationwide (and evaluate outcomes). For practical guidance and disease dynamics see @SpringerNature book chapter by myself, @jackiecassell & Steve Walker: 'Scabies Management in Institutions' link.springer.com/chapter/10.100… Free to read version: sussex.figshare.com/articles/chapt…

@Docstockk It's worth recalling the context of David Steel's original Abortion bill. Not primarily an argument about rights in the public eye. A key driver was the horror of sepsis, infertility and death through backstreet abortion complications after payday. This has almost disappeared

I think a lot of women are uncomfortable with this extreme proposal but don't want to say so for fear of drawing the ire of a small number of feminists who (in my view) are quite fanatical about abortion as an issue. I have no doubt that my posting this will do the same but I don't care :). Just for the record, I think this is very wrong.

@MAbsoud @rwjdingwall Absolutely.

@LucyGoBag We just have to do a gig together, I will get onto it....

@jackiecassell Thank you dear wonderful Prof Jackie x

This, which I learned from Lucy, is something all of us in health and #healthprotectipn should know. Just like viral load and antibody graphs by pathogen. #DisasterRecoveryCurve

@BoinksJar @jasonryanmd @keithnewton That is true. But sometimes it just happens in public, approach of the senior is of course important but the face plant reflects an important professional instinct, to be acknowledged not necessarily minimised

@jasonryanmd @keithnewton 25 yrs doing this. Public embarrassment is NOT something for which we should strive for trainees. ‘Face plants’ are not required for teaching moments. The important thing is having an understanding attending who doesn’t embarrass, but de-escalates the shame.

When I was a 3rd year resident already matched into cardiology we had an EKG conference. I was asked to interpret an EKG that was classic for pericarditis but I didn’t recognize any of the findings. I just hadn’t seen much pericarditis in training. I was embarrassed to miss this when I was headed for a career in cards. Fast forward a couple of years to when I was a fellow and an ED attending showed me an EKG and asked me what I thought it showed. It took me about 2 seconds to recognize it was pericarditis because I had seen it so many times before. A huge change in my skills had occurred from experience. One of the cool things about medicine is mastering that which once seemed confusing or difficult. As you move along in training things that were challenging or even overwhelming will become so easy they are almost second nature. It’s a cool journey. If you’re in the middle of it, enjoy the ride.

@juliaisobela High levels of trust in their senior staff, then... #HabemusPapam

Obsessed with the fact that ravioli is banned at the conclave, in case it was used to smuggle messages to the cardinals

@bencooper @Docstockk "Blinkered", "bad faith distortion"?? Hopefully a nice cliché will emerge....

@jackiecassell @Docstockk What would that way be? What other descriptor would describe the problem?

Never mind the serious reputations, the accents, the swagger, the BBC connections, the Guardian column, the KC status, the rave book reviews, or whatever it is - like no other issue, trans ideology shows up people who are really quite stupid.

@bencooper @Docstockk I know. However there are (many) people whose lives are constantly blighted by mockery for being stupid or thick. Which is why it's important to make these points in a more precise way.

@jackiecassell @Docstockk I wasn’t talking about someone with a learning disability. And how else can one describe people who are unable and/or unwilling to use logic and learning?

@Docstockk @bencooper Fools in the guise of experts, yes I would agree. And so better to be more precise in what we object to, perhaps.

Sometimes the cap fits. I have made clear I am talking about overpromoted so-called authorities and it isn't as if I haven't provided the reasoning. They discredit themselves by their own stupidity in this matter and it is counterproductive for opponents to avoid mentioning the fact. Doesn't help the discourse to suffer fools in the guise of experts.

@bencooper @Docstockk Hmm. Can't read/learning disability = "thick". Voted Brexit = "stupid". The last acceptable generic insult, and I don't think it joints the world in any useful way here. Blinkered, maybe? I *really* dislike stupid as an insult.

@Docstockk In some ways it doesn’t matter - it’s a black-box problem, either way they have to be treated as if they ARE stupid.

@BendyBrain Wishing you all the best in your recovery

Some of you may have noticed I have been rather quiet. I am grappling my own bendy brain-body problem after prolapsing a lumbar disc. As I contemplate the tricky thought of going back to pain rehab, I remembered Dr John Outhwaite, who pulled me aside and told me I had #swaybackknees, on an orthopaedics rotation as a medical student at Oxford. He diagnosed me with #JHS (now #hEDS) and arranged for me to go to a functional restoration programme (aka pain rehab). This was the start of my journey of brain-body understanding. I learned today that he sadly has died. I wanted to say thank you for all he did and that somehow bizarrely helped lead me down this path of work and understanding and hopefully educating and informing others through our @BSMSMedSchool research including my #hypermobile and #neurodivergent kindred and their doctors and now psychiatrists with my work @rcpsych especially in @rcpsychNDPSIG Rest in Peace. I know you can’t always get what you wan’t, but sometimes you get what you need. #EDS #hypermobility #allthethings

@LucyGoBag I'd be interested in your thoughts on best practice in naming of exercises (including use of Latin names and words like Cygnus)? Interesting journey we went through on the naming of storms...

My experience with exercise “errors” (names, held on anniversary dates, use of profiling, overt racism) is that they are very rarely errors… instead they are things that bored, complacent or mischievous exercise directors think public will never notice

@ShazzBakes Gratin. Slice thinly, few onion slices, layer and sprinkle a little flour, perhaps some sardines or other tinned fish for protein, black pepper and whatever herbs you like, cover (just) with milk, maybe sprinkle grated cheese. Cook 70 mins at 160, you have a meal. Lettuce side

I got 1.5kg of "wonky white potatoes" (small, but not new potatoes) for practically nothing in The Discount Shelf. Besides mash or chips (too small to make jacket pot's) what the heck can I do with them? All answers appreciated! Ta.

@DorinaCadar @bethanyalinder @UKHSA @BSMSMedSchool @BSMS_CDS Great team at @UKHSA , and delighted #SingingScabies won poster prize, you can listen to our opera here, sussex.figshare.com/articles/compo… by Ed Hughes and Pete Cant, more background at blogs.brighton.ac.uk/textilesandsca…

A heartfelt thank you to @bethanyalinder for her outstanding contributions to the CovDem project funded by @UKHSA Your dedication and collaborative spirit have been instrumental in shaping this work with @jackiecassell #DementiaResearch #preparedeness @BSMSMedSchool @BSMS_CDS

@DorinaCadar @bethanyalinder @UKHSA @BSMSMedSchool @BSMS_CDS @bethanyalinder has done a fabulous job, look forward to supporting her into peer reviewed publications and beyond

@rwjdingwall The link doesn't seem to work

@rwjdingwall Thank you!

To mark the Day of Reflection, I have uploaded the AAM of my chapter on the Sociology of Epidemics and Pandemics for wider access... academia.edu/128093804/The_…